Month: February 2006

Kurt Pfeifle has updated the klik://tellico-latest recipe for Tellico 1.1. Klik provides an easy way to download and use software for most major distributions. It works pretty well for me with Mandriva 2006. They have a lot of documentation about how it works. If you can’t find a package for your distribution, this is a great way to try out new software without hassle.

It looks like I’ll be the “recipe maintainer” for Tellico now, too. You can find more information about the Tellico bundle on thetellico-latest recipe page.

Miller proudly announced the title of his next Batman book, which he will write, draw and ink. Holy Terror, Batman! is no joke. And Miller doesn’t hold back on the true purpose of the book, calling it “a piece of propoganda,” where ‘Batman kicks al Qaeda’s ass.”

Not that’s the kind of comic book we need. How about a similar movie, Hollywood?

I’m sure every programmer has those moments where you stress-test your code in some new way, and when it works right the first-time, there’s a certain feeling of satisfaction. I came across a mention of a z39.50 server that included Hebrew-language records, and so I thought I’d give it whirl in Tellico.

Now, the Qt library has excellent Unicode support, as does KDE. The yaz library supports utf-8, and the Israel Union List returns results in utf-8. So theoretically, the whole tool-chain should spit out the proper result.

I don’t know exactly what I’m looking at there, but as you can see, it appears that the Hebrew words came through correctly. Granted, my XSL stylesheet left-aligns everything, so that looks a bit weird, but it gives me a nice sense of satisfaction that it worked as intended.

Tellico 1.1 is available. After several pre-releases, I’m confident most of the major bugs were fixed. Heh. As always, I make no guarantees with this software. Use at your own risk, backup your data, and don’t mix ketchup and mayonnaise. Changes since 1.0.3 include:

Minimum versions bumped to KDE >=3.2 and QT >= 3.2.

Images can be written to the application folder, instead of the
data file, which improves performance.

Added file catalog collection type for tracking CD/DVD
contents.

Existing entries can be updated automatically,
allowing data from multiple sources to be combined.

Fox on Feb. 1 gave a green light to the SF drama pilot Beyond, from writer David Self (Road To Perdition), Variety reported.

Twentieth Century Fox TV and Imagine TV are behind the thriller, which takes place at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A global crisis helps launch a new race to space as the show opens, the trade paper reported.

Wow, let’s race to space! Although, if it’s a manned race-to-space, I’m not sure why JPL would be involved, but hey, better than nothing. Maybe we could get someone to say, “I’m not a rocket scientist, but I play one on TV!“

All you need to know about how hard it will be to get people to watch the Oscars is that a nominated documentary about penguins has been watched by more moviegoers than any of the five best picture contenders.

March of the Penguins was great. The only one of the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen is Crash, which I thought was engrossing, but perhaps not Best Picture quality.

Or that four out of five people — and sometimes fewer — tuning into the broadcast will not have seen any of those movies in a theater.